This Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup is the ultimate in Fall and Winter comfort food. Roasting the squash and potatoes add such a deep caramelized flavor that is just unbeatable! The soup is also freezer-friendly!
This is one of my Soup recipes I know you’ll want to keep on hand!
When I think of Fall, I think of football, Thanksgiving, chili, and amazing cozy soups.
Butternut squash and sweet potato soup are, in my mind anyway, the pinnacle of Fall flavors and coziness.
Sometimes sweet, sometimes savory, and sometimes a combination of both, this soup is perfect on a chilly evening!
Instead of just boiling the squash, I added sweet potato, carrot, onion and garlic and roasted them until golden brown. This adds such a depth of flavor to the soup, and really concentrates their natural sweetness.
Then they’re combined with perfectly sautéed vegetables, a combination of warm and savory spices, and rich chicken broth.
The simplicity makes this recipe easy to make, but don’t mistake that simplicity for lack of flavor. Each bite is a tango for your taste buds!
How to make squash and sweet potato soup?
This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.
- Roast vegetables. This concentrates their flavor and adds an extra dimension to the soup.
- Saute vegetables. These diced vegetables are a standard flavor-base for any great soup (carrots, onion and celery).
- Add seasonings and roasted vegetables.
- Add chicken broth.
- Blend. An immersion blender is awesome here since you won’t have to transfer hot soup.
- Heat through and serve.
Helpful Tip!
When roasting the vegetables make sure you use a big enough baking sheet that they can be spread out in a single layer with a little bit of space in between them. Otherwise, the vegetables won’t roast and caramelize, they’ll steam. You really want that deep savory flavor that comes from golden brown edges.
Variations of this recipe
- All squash/all sweet potato – if you would prefer to use all butternut squash or all sweet potato, you absolutely can.
- Chicken bouillon – instead of chicken broth, feel free to use water and mix in 4-6 tsp of bouillon powder, or an equivalent amount of cubes or better than bouillon paste.
- Spicy – to add a little heat, feel free to add 1/4 – 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes.
- Toppings – I like to keep it simple with roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds), but you can add roasted chopped nuts (such as walnuts or pecans), croutons, Parmesan cheese, a drizzle of maple syrup, etc.
- Swirl – to get the beautiful swirl and drizzle of creaminess I show in most of these photos, heavy cream or sour cream can be used. For a non-dairy option, feel free to use coconut cream.
- Homemade croutons – store-bought croutons will absolutely work, but if you’d like a homemade version, try these olive oil and garlic croutons!
FAQ’s
As written, it is neither. However it’s incredibly simple to swap 2 ingredients and make it either vegetarian or vegan. Change out the butter for coconut or olive oil, and instead of chicken broth, use vegetable broth.
Both can be used, with a couple of caveats. Pre-cubed squash is super convenient, but sometimes the pieces can be rather small. If you have small slivers in your bag of cubed squash, don’t use those, as they’ll burn in the oven. Frozen butternut squash will need to be thawed and patted dry before roasting. Otherwise the moisture released will just cause the squash to steam, not roast and caramelize.
There are sweet versions, and savory versions. This recipe is a mixture of both. There’s no added sugar or sweetener, but the vegetables used have a natural sweetness. There’s also savory vegetables and spices used to balance it all out.
Making sweet potato soup ahead of time
Soups are one of those recipes that usually taste just as delicious, if not more, the next day. And this soup recipe is no exception!
You can either make the soup entirely ahead of time, cool, store and reheat as needed, or you can prep ahead.
- Roasted veggies – the squash, sweet potato, carrot, onion and garlic can be roasted, cooled completely, and stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
- Chopping veggies – the carrot, onion and celery can be diced and stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
Storage
Leftover soup should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and eaten within 5-7 days.
Freezing
Add cooled soup to freezer containers, label them with the date, and freeze for 3-6 months.
This soup freezes best when no dairy has been added (no cream or sour cream on top).
My Favorite Immersion Blender!
Immersion or stick blenders are so handy to have in the kitchen. You can blend the soup right in the cooking vessel, so you don’t have to worry about blending hot liquid, and messy transfers between containers.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @the_chunky_chef on Facebook and Instagram!
Ingredients
Roasted vegetables
- 1 large butternut squash peeled, seeded, and cubed into 1 inch pieces (about 5 cups)
- 1 – 2 large sweet potatoes peeled and cubed into 1 inch pieces (about 5 cups)
- 1 large carrot peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/2 large yellow onion peeled and cut into large pieces
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Soup base
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 large yellow onion diced
- 1 large carrot peeled and diced
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- 1/4 tsp ground sage
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 6 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
Optional toppings
- drizzle of heavy cream
- dollop of sour cream
- roasted salted pumpkin seeds
Instructions
Roast the vegetables
- Preheat oven to 400°F and set out a large baking sheet.
- To a large mixing bowl, add vegetables from the roasted vegetables section of ingredients (butternut squash, sweet potato, half an onion, 1 carrot and garlic).
- Add oil, salt and pepper and stir to combine well. Transfer vegetables to baking sheet, then bake in preheated oven for 30-45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender and golden brown. Stir halfway through baking.
Make soup
- Start this process during the second half of the vegetables roasting, when you have about 10 minutes left.
- Add butter to a large dutch oven or stockpot (whatever you would normally cook a big batch of soup in), and heat over MED HIGH heat.
- Once melted, add diced onion, diced carrot, and diced celery. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir.
- Cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and lightly golden.
- Stir in cinnamon, rosemary, sage and nutmeg.
- Add roasted vegetables from the baking sheet, then pour in chicken broth.
- Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth or desired texture is reached.
- Continue heating until hot throughout (this time will vary from person to person), mine just took about 5 minutes. Taste, and add salt and pepper if necessary.
Serve
- Serve hot, with an optional swirl of heavy cream or sour cream, and/or topped with any desired toppings.
Want to save this recipe for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own recipe box!
Chef Tips
No Immersion Blender
You can absolutely still make this recipe without an immersion blender.- For safety reasons, let the roasted vegetables and sautéed vegetables cool down a bit before transferring them to a standard blender or large food processor. You can also use a potato masher, but you likely won’t get that traditionally smooth texture this way.
- Add about 2 cups or so of chicken broth to the blender with the vegetables, just enough to let you blend it all together.
- Transfer soup back to the dutch oven or stockpot and add the remaining 4 cups of chicken broth to the pot and whisk together until combined well.
- Heat through and serve.
Storage
Leftover soup should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and eaten within 5-7 days.Freezing
Add cooled soup to freezer containers, label them with the date, and freeze for 3-6 months. This soup freezes best when no dairy has been added (no cream or sour cream on top).Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Cathy says
This is such a delicious flavor combo!
Erin | Dinners,Dishes and Dessert says
The soup looks so good!
Vikki says
Love this combination of flavors! Very hearty soup
Beth says
I love the combination of the butternut squash and sweet potato. They work so well together.